That was the theme of the conference I was just in. Not the official theme. But definitely the theme that came through to me. I found it amazingly ironic to be in a room of mission executives where I felt like a new kid on the block and listen to 20 something leaders tell the oldsters that they’ve missed it. In fact, they expressed that missions is like an impenetrable wall. They’d love to learn from our experience, but we don’t seem to care. Our message? “Fill out this form and we’ll get back to you in a few weeks. Oh, and by the way, NO, we aren’t interested in a creative approach.”
It was also interesting to hear the response from the leadership in the room. My favorite question had to be one posed to a church leader of an emerging church that has started 14 churches in a closed country in three years by itself because the agency it has a relationship with told it that was impossible and to forget it. The question posed was, “SO, what if all churches did what you have done? Wouldn’t there be incredible duplication of efforts?” The implied answer was that God created agencies to avoid that problem. :) On Yahoo there is an emoticon for LOL that would work better here.
Actually, I found myself crying as I watched a video clip of young people at Urbana telling the camera what they would tell agency executives if they had the chance. The theme was, “We’re out here. We have passion. We want to change the world!”
What made me cry was the thought that I started into missions with a passion to reach lost people with the message of Christ. I specialized in bridging cultural gaps as a missionary to connect with people and be able to share what I know with them. Now, as an agency leader, I hear voices telling us we have missed connecting with a whole generation right here at home. In their voices I heard a longing for a connection.
At the Mission Exchange annual business meeting the chairman of the board did a skit with people from the audience. Of course there were no young leaders present. This was a business meeting for members. He asked for anyone under 35 to represent Paul and Barnabas and Titus. Then anyone under 40. Then anyone under 45. Finally he took people under 50 to speak for those young leaders. He got three older men to be Apostles and elders. He read the story of Paul coming to Jerusalem to answer questions about his work and then with no preparation asked these mission leaders to act out these parts and interviewed them about the upcoming meeting. I was sitting there trying to figure out the point of this when it dawned on me. OH, this is to show that what we have heard here is nothing new. New leaders have been stretching old leaders from the beginning of the church, so we really shouldn’t get too worried about what we have heard. We were young once too. They’ll come around and it’ll be OK.
Maybe they’re right...
Now back to our regularly scheduled blogging.
1 comment:
I get very frustrated with the attitude that seems to throw out ALL the old, even discredit it if it isn't "new" enough.
Lots of Holy Servants have given their lives in obedience and to totally ignore and discredit that is just plain wrong.
Those young voices just can't realize that in a few years, THEY will be the older generation and be accused of missing the boat by those coming along behind them.
Wouldn't it just be much better if we all worked selflessly together using the gifts God gave us instead of trying to make all others clones of ourselves?
Cloning is after all, the ultimate in self-centered-ness.
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